News Archive

Updated, 8/1: Joint press release by Occupy Wall Street Environmental Solidarity Working Group, Occupy San Francisco, Occupy Santa Fe, and (Un)Occupy Albuquerque added at bottom of article, with updated information on actions occurring in NYC and and the San Francisco Bay Area.

(un)Occupy Albuquerque and allies are organizing a civil disobedience action on Hiroshima Day, August 6th, in Los Alamos as part of the wider three-day events planned by the Occupy Santa Fe Nuke Free Now Coalition. See here for a full events list for August 3-6 in Santa Fe and Los Alamos.

There is no single institution on earth that undermines the well-being of the world more than the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Northern New Mexico.

NUCLEAR WAR
As a tool of the U.S. empire, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) developed the only nuclear
bombs to be used as weapons of war—in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and three days later in Nagasaki. At least 225,000 civilians were killed. Hundreds of thousands died later of cancers, and thousands more inherited birth defects. Today, the U.S. nuclear stockpile contains enough warheads to destroy 159,000 Hiroshimas. With threats of a U.S. strike against Iran and Israel’s U.S.-backed hegemony in the Middle East, it is time to shut down the war machine.

TOXIC EARTH
The development and maintenance of nuclear weapons displaces indigenous people, pollutes air, water, and land & degrades the health of all life on Earth. The U. S. has exploded over 1100 nuclear weapons in tests above and underground and in the ocean, exposing millions of unsuspecting humans and animals to damaging radiation. LANL is built on and is contaminating indigenous land “borrowed” by the U.S. government and never returned.

CORPORATE GREED
Los Alamos is NO LONGER operated by the U.S. government. In an egregious breach of world security,
U.S. nuclear weapons industry operations have been managed by private, for-profit corporations since
2007. Among the largest of these, Bechtel Corporation—the engineering firm that built almost half of the nuclear plants in the world as well as the oil infrastructure of Saudi Arabia—now runs daily operations at LANL, and last year was awarded more than $55 million in pure profit for LANL management alone.

LOST EXPERTISE
The resources and scientific expertise devoted to nuclear bombs are critically needed to address such
pressing issues as global warming, declining fossil fuel supply, overpopulation, species extinction, and
poverty.

Join us in Los Alamos, NM Aug. 6, 2012 to put the Empire on notice:
No more nuclear weapons!
No more corporate greed! No more war!
!Ya Basta U.S. global domination!

Obama's FY 2012 budget request designates over $7.6 billion to programs directly related to nuclear warheads. This is an 8.9% increase from the previous year. The increase will be sustained and then increased further "in the later out years."

Accord to a White House fact sheet: "The plan includes investments of $80 billion to sustain and modernize the nuclear weapons complex" ... and "well over $100 billion in nuclear delivery systems to sustain existing capabilities and modernize some strategic systems" by the year 2020.

Federal spending for nuclear weapons between 1940 and 2007 was about $7.2 trillion, exceeding "the combined total federal spending for education; training, employment, and social services; agriculture; natural resources and the environment; general science, space, and technology; community and regional development, including disaster relief; law enforcement; and energy production and regulation."

Nuclear weapons' relationship to human security was put on display in Japan 67 years ago. We know what they do.

Every facet of the nuclear industry poisons our planet. The nuclear business is wildly profitable, yet it collects billions in taxpayer subsidies.

Nuclear subsides go beyond mere money. The biosphere and creatures who depend on a living planet pay the largest subsidy through illness and premature death.

Nuclear weapons manufacturing and testing has poisoned millions, but secrecy has keep us misinformed. Secrecy has blocked accurate measures of how much radiation we have been exposed to. Misinformation has allowed downwinders, uranium miners, defense workers and the subjects of secret tests to suffer and die without medical attention or compensation. The lack of medical care given to nuclear victims has impeded scientific study of the long-term effects of weapons development and testing.

In spite of this neglect, scientists do know that exposure to the fallout from nuclear weapons testing causes cancers, tumors, genetic damage, infertility, birth defects and death.

Plutonium is so poisonous that one inhaled microscopic particle can cause lung cancer.

A few reap billions in profits, while we, the 99%, have diminished futures. There is always money for more bombs and new wars, but we’re told there isn’t enough for healthcare, education, housing, pensions. Sustainable-energy projects languish. We live with the nightmare of nuclear war.

A major nuclear war — between the US and Russia —would leave Earth virtually uninhabitable. A regional war — limited to India and Pakistan would cause a global famine that would kill one billion people, according to Alan Robock and Brian Toon, two of the foremost experts on the climatic impact of nuclear war.

Occupy Nukes: Hiroshima Day - August 6, 2012
A National Day of Action Against the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Arsenal
NO 80 billion dollar modernization of facilities in Los Alamos, NM, Kansas City, MO, or Oak Ridge, TN!

The 99% will be confronting the US's massive nuclear weapons arsenal on August 6, Hiroshima Day. Occupy Nukes demonstrations will be held in the San Fransisco Bay Area, Los Alamos, and New York City

Where and When:
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York, 5:30 PM;
Japanese Consulate at 50 Fremont Street, San Francisco, 2 PM;
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, all day.

August 6 will be a day of solemn remembrance of those who suffered and perished in one of the most horrific and genocidal war crimes ever committed; the dropping of the atomic bomb on the civilian population of Hiroshima in 1945, equal only to the atomic bombing Nagasaki three days later. At least 225,000 civilians were killed in the Hiroshima bombing. Hundreds of thousands died later of cancers, and thousands more inherited birth defects. But August 6 will also be a day in which the 99% took action to ensure such destruction is never wrought on anyone ever again.

Nuclear weapons allow us to gauge the full extent of brutality that the 1%, which rules through exploitation, coercion and violence, is capable of committing. Money spent on nukes is irradiating social programs for the 99%.

We further recognize that nuclear weapons have a bastard twin; nuclear power. So called “safe”, “civilian” nuclear technology is used to justify the fossil-fuel intensive mining of uranium in some of the worlds most economically decimated regions, in country's such as Romania and Niger, and on indigenous lands in South Australia and the American West. Continued reliance on nuclear power has led the people of earthquake-prone Japan to experience the radioactive horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki all over again with the continuing disaster at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant.

On August 6, people power challenges nuclear power. The Occupy Movement stands in solidarity with those threatened, poisoned and murdered the globe over by the 1%'s nuclear fueled rule.

Occupy activists in New Mexico, ground zero for US nuclear weapons development, will hold a series of film screenings, teach-ins, and rallies, culminating in a mass, non-violent direct action at Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Un)Occupy Albuquerque says “No more nuclear weapons! No more corporate greed! No more war! !Ya Basta US global domination!”

In the San Fransisco Bay Area, Occupy activists will be gathering in hazmat suits at the Japanese Consulate, drawing connections between nuclear weapons and nuclear power, Hirsohima and Fukushima, Japanese and US reactors, as well as drawing attention to the near eternal life of nuclear waste. Occupy Oakland says, “Our government disregards radioactive pollution from the corporations that fund elections, and the people are unprotected from the nuclear threat.”

Occupy Wall Street and affiliate groups in NYC will be congregating at 30 Rockeller Plaza, headquarters of General Electric, the world's biggest company and builders of the melted-down reactors at Fukushima. Demonstrators will be staging a die-in or, melt-in, calling attention to the costly and continued development of nuclear weapons and nuclear power technology in concert between the government and corporations.

GE brings good things to death. The mega-corporation, along with its Japanese nuclear partner Hitachi, is seeking permission from the industry-captured US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a new uranium enrichment facility in Wilmington, NC. The facility will utilize new laser technology that makes the processing of nuclear fuel swifter and more convenient for the 1%'s weapons and power plants.

Members of CWA & IBEW at Verizon have been working without a contract for the last year. Support their efforts to put pressure on Verizon to give them a fair contract!

Message from the union:
Despite months of bargaining and significant movement by the unions, management continues to insist on gutting retirement and job security, major concessions in health care, and refuses to bring back thousands of outsourced and off-shored jobs.

On July 19th, CWA and IBEW requested the intervention of a federal mediator, and we are hopeful that a mediator may be able to make some progress. But at this point, it appears that this enormously profitable company—which made nearly $22 billion in profits over the last five years and paid its top five executives nearly $350 million during that time—is determined to implement unilaterally a concessionary contract that will slash the living standards of CWA and IBEW members. The possibility of a lengthy and difficult strike is looming.

At the same time, Verizon is seeking Department of Justice (DoJ) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval for a deal that will allow them to stop competing with the big cable companies like Comcast and Time-Warner, and allow these telecommunications giants to market their products jointly. So instead of the competition envisioned by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the biggest and most powerful telecom companies will be forming an effective monopoly over Internet, Video and Phone service in much of the country. This deal would mean an end to the FiOS build out, leaving upstate cities and rural areas without access to the most advanced high-speed networks, and eliminating consumer choice. In addition, Verizon is openly abandoning its copper network and focusing its strategy on high-end customers only. In short, Verizon’s strategic plan for New York is devastating to both workers and consumers.

The Verizon 1% must be stopped but CWA and IBEW cannot do it alone. You were all there in solidarity with the Verizon strikers last August. Now it looks like we have to gear up for Round 2.

Occupy Wall Street stands in solidarity with anti-fascist encampments in Germany and similar actions in North America. We encourage all supporters in Europe to attend the mobilization beginning August 24th in Dortmund! For more information on this and other encampments, and to see this call in other languages, see http://www.antifacamp.org or follow @antifa_camp.

Dortmund has been known for its Nazi-problem for years. The so-called “Nationale Antikriegstag” (“national anti-war day”) has, like the fascist “commemoration” of the bombardement of Dresden, nationwide relevance for the Nazi-scene. Also Dortmund Nazi groupings like the “Nationale Widerstand Dortmund” / NWDO (“national resistance”) and the “Skinhead Front Dortmund” have repeatedly attracted attention by offensive actions and armed assaults. In the Dortmund district of Dorstfeld Neo-Nazi structures have over the years been able to spread through shared flats and the “Nationale Zentrum” (“national center”).

Fascist Networks – Murderous Politics

The NWDO originated from structures of “Kameradschaften” and is well-connected nationwide. This is indicated by considerable numbers of participants in the “Antikriegstag” from all over the country, as well as personal and infrastructural support of nationwide Nazi events. In recent years, the Dortmund Nazi scene has attracted a lot of attention because of its actionist appearance.

The “Skinhead –Front Dorstfeld” has repeatedly attacked people with different views or from a migrant background. A sad culmination of their violence was the murder of punk Thomas Schulz by Sven Kahlin in 2005. The Nazis celebrated that crime with their inhumanely contemptuous slogan “1 : 0”. Kahlin, who was paroled in 2010, right away attacked the alternative pub Hirsch-Q together with other members of the Skinhead Front. Altogether the Hirsch-Q has been the target of Nazi attacks six times since 2006. On 26th November 2011 Sven Kahlin together with five other Nazis attacked two youths from a Turkish migrant background; consequently he was sent back to prison.

The murder of Dortmund retail merchant Mehmet Kubasik on 4th April 2006, which had a racist background, by the Nazi terrorist cell NSU/ “Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund” will yet have to be looked into with respect to involvement of Dortmund Nazis. A former agent of the secret service of the state of Northrhine Westfalia told the paper WAZ that around 2004 NPD members from Dortmund established contacts with extreme-right radicals in the state of Thüringen, among them some with the NSU. In addition three police officers were murdered by Dortmund Fascist weapons-fanatic Michael Berger in 2000.

Denial, Support, or Counter-Action?

The City of Dortmund has for years contributed to a favourable political climate and the establishment and growth of its Nazi scene: The existence of the scene was denied, Nazi activities were directly or indirectly furthered. For example, as early as 2002 the police exerted pressure on the owner of a concert place so that he did not cancel a Blood & Honour concert with 1200 people. Anti-Fascist activities on the other hand were obstructed and criminalized. In recent years numerous physical attacks by Nazis hardly had any legal consequences, which even some Nazis gleefully commented on in a TV interview. Also, the previous police commissioner several times ordered police measures which were criticized nationwide, among those a highly criticised round-up in 2000, in which mostly teenage activists were held for several hours. Before last year’s National Anti-War Day a minivan full of armed Nazis who had attacked a group of Anti-Fascists was not stopped; instead of that the victims were reported for posting bills.

Now that it has almost become politically impossible to keep on ignoring Neo-Nazi violence, policies in the city are gradually changing. The new police commissioner announced a change of policies from the side of the police and even expressed appreciation of blockades against Nazi demonstrations. The building which houses the “National Center” was bought by the city and the tenancy-agreement was cancelled. A day after some Nazis had been stopped posting bills against that cancellation, the “National Center” was searched and the identities of more than 50 Nazis from Dortmund and Unna were checked. “Back Up!”- “Counselling Initiative for Victims of Rightist Violence” was set up, a special “Task Force” was installed by the mayor and a “Round Table against Rightists” was installed a few weeks ago. It remains to be seen, though, how consequent and persistent this new Anti-Fascist eagerness will be. Experience over past years has shown that scepticsm is justified and manifold Anti-Fascist activities are necessary now and will be so in the future.

Our Perspective …

We would like to emphasize that Antisemitism and racist discrimination far exceed the aggression of (government-financed as well as unfunded) Nazi structures. Antifascist resistance must therefore deal with every-day racism in government authorities, e.g. in refugee politics, as these conditions exist only because of the deep roots of racism in society. A starting point for criticism can be found in cooperation with migrants’ initiatives, e.g. in the Dortmund Nordstadt, where after repeated anti-Gypsy media coverage the situation of sex-workers, which was precarious enough before, has been further aggravated. In their public protests, they denounced that media coverage above all to be the cause of the lack of protection against violent-prone customers, blackmailing by pimps, and the loss of their independence.

We would be glad if it was sufficient to say: “Ban Sexism”. But we want to go against gender-related role-clichés not only “out there ” but among ourselves, too, and that does not stop at the criticism of obvious oppression. If we try to overcome the differences between men and women in society, that means to become aware also of the “invisible”, apparently undisputed hierarchies and privileges. By also treating the (social) questions of impoverishment and discrimination offensively, we want to regain public ground in order not to leave the field to those (un-) social Nazi protests against lousy working conditions and “Hartz IV”.

In addition we call on everyone to join us in our fight to stand up against the public notion of 1st September as Anti-War-Day in the Fascist context but instead to establish it as a day of anti-militarist commemoration. If we take the Oath of Buchenwald seriously, Anti-Militarism and Anti-Fascism must be seen together. We will only weaken our cause and not be able to change society fundamentally if we remain segregated in movements with a too narrow focus.

… an Ambitious Project

… which must be based on well-reflected concepts in many fields. Adapting these to the situation in Dortmund will be in the focus of our preparatory work.

The camp is designed as a signal of an Anti-fascist surge against the Dortmund status quo.
We move forward with nationwide support in radical but widespread actions to confront the Nazis in their core preparation-period for their “National Anti-War Day” and will spoil their demonstration for them.

We will welcome anyone to join us who cares for an undogmatic radical Anti-Fascist resistance.

Come to Dortmund from 24th August to 2nd September!
Join us to make the Nazi demonstration on 1st September impossible!

On July 12th, participants in OccupyLA met to raise awareness for unlawful arrests of activists that had been targeting a lobby group with a stranglehold on power over local and state politics. The activists handed out chalk and shared the story of unlawful arrests and police repression. The LAPD responded by amassing in riot gear and issuing a tactical alert effectively shutting down the Downtown LA art walk and trapping many patrons inside of local businesses as a response to chalk art being drawn on the sidewalk. The mainstream media misrepresented the sequence of events, blaming occupiers for the near riot in Downtown LA even though the police were responsible for escalation.

The public, frustrated by the absurdity of police violence over 'sidewalk chalk', filled the streets demanding that the police cease their intimidation over what many consider a fundamental right to free speech and assembly. The law enforcement arm of the state saw fit to intervene violently in a peaceful expression of free speech and 'do it yourself' art, on behalf of the private interests that control the downtown space. They shot the crowd with the near lethal force of rubber bullets and foam grenades inciting fear and panic so that their violent intervention appears justified. In light of recent police murders in Anaheim, it is important we show that crowd control tactics taken against any who dare protest are not acceptable uses of force by any police state. More than that, these acts of terror by the police state will not deter us from assembling and seeking justice for our communities.

The political and financial elite cannot bear to see us assemble, cannot bear for us to share ideas and strategies or grow our vision and movement into revolution. We know that this is not about chalk. It is about whose interests are affected by our message, whose interests are protected when so-called public servants protect lifeless sidewalks from the messages of a frustrated populace. It is about censorship, political freedom and the merger of corporation and state working to silence the voice of the people. It is about the extrajudicial authority of the national security apparatus for the mere purpose of intimidating the masses into silence.

On August 9th, Occupy Los Angeles calls for you to fill your squares and take your streets and sidewalks with chalk. Call to all people everywhere to show that dissent is as simple as writing your grievances on the sidewalk, as accessible as hopscotch in the streets- reclaiming public space and engaging in public dialogue and expression. Join us (if you're close enough) for a day of solidarity and fun to celebrate the human spirit and chalk for our collective liberation. Together we will remake the art of public life in our alley ways, on the doorsteps of banks whose only allegiance is to profit, and in the streets built by our labor.

In solidarity, regardless of all nations and borders, we will engage in willful public expression against political repression.

NOTE: Be aware that your actions make evoke a police response and it is important all participants are familiar with local private and public property laws so that they can assess their own level of risk and make informed decisions.

On Wednesday July 25th, the FBI conducted a series of coordinated raids against activists in Portland, Olympia, and Seattle. They subpoenaed several people to a special federal grand jury, and seized computers, black clothing and anarchist literature. This comes after similar raids in Seattle in July and earlier raids of squats in Portland.

Though the FBI has said that the raids are part of a violent crime investigation, the truth is that the federal authorities are conducting a political witch-hunt against anarchists and others working toward a more just, free, and equal society. The warrants served specifically listed anarchist literature as evidence to be seized, pointing to the fact that the FBI and police are targeting this group of people because of their political ideas. Pure and simple, these raids and the grand jury hearings are being used to intimidate people whose politics oppose the state’s agenda. During a time of growing economic and ecological crises that are broadly affecting people across the world, it is an attempt to push back any movement towards creating a world that is humane, one that meets every person’s needs rather than serving only the interests of the rich.

This attack does not occur in a vacuum. Around the country and around the world, people have been rising up and resisting an economic system that puts the endless pursuit of profit ahead of the basic needs of humanity and the Earth. From the Arab Spring to the Occupy movement to now Anaheim, people are taking to the streets. In each of these cases, the state has responded with brutal political repression. This is not a coincidence. It is a long-term strategy by state agencies to stop legitimate political challenges to a status quo that exploits most of the world’s people.

We, the undersigned, condemn this and all other political repression. While we may have differences in ideology or chose to use different tactics, we understand that we are in a shared struggle to create a just, free, and liberated world, and that we can only do this if we stand together. We will not let scare tactics or smear campaigns divide us, intimidate us, or stop us from organizing and working for a better world.